Fighting for Ratings Dominance at the Same Time

By EDWARD WYATT

Published: October 28, 2006

A titanic ratings battle is taking place this fall between the two top-rated shows on television, ''Grey's Anatomy'' on ABC and ''CSI'' on CBS, two series that, unlike the contestants in most years for most-watched show, are actually broadcast at the same time.

Despite going head to head on Thursday nights at 9, ''CSI'' and ''Grey's'' have managed to expand the television audience to its highest level each week, together drawing 45 million viewers, as many as the combined draw of all five networks on a typical night, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Another, less noticed battle is also shaping up between two shows that run against each other on Wednesday nights at 9: ''Lost'' on ABC and ''Criminal Minds'' on CBS.

Together, the four shows, each of them ranking in the Top 10 in total viewers, have created one of the most competitive television seasons in years.

They also demonstrate the different tacks taken by ABC and CBS in attracting viewers. Though each of the ABC shows ranks close to its CBS competitor on total viewers, the ABC pair is far ahead in attracting viewers between the ages of 18 and 49, the demographic sweet spot that advertisers want when looking for shows on which to pitch their wares.

Beneath the surface of the ABC juggernauts, however, there appears to be at least one soft spot. Each week this fall, ''Lost'' has lost viewers from its first half-hour to its second, and at least some of them appear to be migrating midshow to CBS, where ''Criminal Minds'' has been gaining viewers each week in its second half-hour.

That two shows from both ABC and CBS have managed to gain strength through the first month of the season while going head to head with strong competitors is evidence that network television is far from the gasping dinosaur that it is sometimes portrayed as, said Kelly Kahl, an executive vice president at CBS who serves as the network's chief scheduler.

''It's almost unheard of to have the top two shows running at the same time on the same night,'' Mr. Kahl said. ''As we have seen time and time again, network television is very resilient.''

''CSI'' ranked second in total viewers last year only to ''American Idol,'' the Fox hit that will return in January. This year, ABC decided to move ''Grey's Anatomy'' from Sunday nights, where it had followed ''Desperate Housewives,'' to Thursdays, feeling that its drama about young doctors in love had a good shot at outdrawing ''CSI'' among younger viewers.

''Grey's'' did that and more, shooting to the top of the television rankings in nearly every category. In the first month of the season it ranked first in total viewers, averaging 24 million a week, about 1 million more than ''CSI.''

But ''Grey's Anatomy'' also killed the competition among what television executives call ''the demo,'' the 18-to-49 demographic group. There, it regularly draws a rating of 9.4 or better, according to Nielsen Media Research, meaning that almost 1 in 10 potential viewers in that demographic in the United States are tuned into the show. ''CSI'' draws a rating of about 7.5 in that age group.

Measured another way, ''Grey's'' draws about 23 percent of the 18-to-49-year-old viewers who are watching television at that hour on Thursdays. The ''CSI'' audience measures about 18 percent of that group.

The trends this fall are similar for ''Lost'' and ''Criminal Minds,'' two shows that performed well last year but have gained strength in the new season -- neither at the expense of the other.

In the number of overall viewers, the two shows have been running close to each other all season, with ''Lost,'' which has averaged about 17.5 million viewers each week, slightly edging out ''Criminal Minds,'' with 16.4 million. (When Nielsen includes a late-September edition of ''Lost'' that was a compilation of clips of the first two seasons, its average drops to 15.5 million.)

In the 18-to-49 group, ''Lost'' wins handily, drawing about 17 percent of people in that group who are watching television at the time, versus about 11 percent for ''Criminal Minds.''

But CBS has been loudly trumpeting the fact that on a few occasions ''Criminal Minds'' has been winning more total viewers in the second half-hour, from 9:30 to 10 p.m., when the number of ''Lost'' viewers typically declines and the number of ''Criminal Minds'' viewers climbs.

Those trends probably reflect a couple of factors. Shows like ''Lost'' that attract younger viewers also are more likely to have fans who record the show on a digital video recorder for viewing later in the week, or who go to the network's Web site to watch the show. ABC, like some of its competitors, now regularly puts its biggest shows up on its Web site for free viewing the day after each episode is broadcast.

While the Nielsen ratings capture data about viewers who record a show and watch it the same day it is broadcast, the service does not measure those who watch a recorded episode later in the week, or those who view it online or buy a show through a service like iTunes.

ABC also said that the declines in the second half-hour of ''Lost,'' which measure about 500,000 a week, do not indicate a fundamental weakness in the show. Rather, it is a function of having a mass audience hit as a lead-in: ''Dancing With the Stars,'' the dance competition show that is drawing 17 million to 20 million viewers or more on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

Inevitably, some of those viewers end up staying tuned to ABC for the beginning of ''Lost'' but change to another channel or turn off their sets sometime during the first half-hour.

Those who do tend to be older viewers, it seems, the type more likely to be watching ''Criminal Minds.'' In only one of the first four weeks of the season did ratings for ''Lost'' in the 18-to-49 group fall from the first half-hour to the second. ''The ones who are leaving are not in the same demographic as the ones who are staying,'' said Jeff Lindsey, a spokesman for ABC. ''It's a high-class problem to have.''

The Wednesday competition has produced one more winner as well: Touchstone Television, the production company that, like ABC, is owned by the Walt Disney Company, which produces both ''Lost'' and ''Criminal Minds.''

Photos: Clockwise, from top left: scenes from the popular television series ''CSI'' on CBS, ''Grey's Anatomy'' on ABC, ''Lost'' on ABC and ''Criminal Minds'' on CBS. (Photos by Robert Voets/CBS [''CSI'']; Gale Adler/ABC [''Grey's Anatomy'']; Mario Perez/ABC [''Lost'']; Vivian Zink/Touchstone [''Criminal Minds''])